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Robert Louis Stevenson School

School rating 3 / 5 by

3152 Forest Lake Road Pebble Beach CA 93953 United States
Boarding
9th to 12th
Day
K to 12th
Gender
Coed

Academic

Robert Louis Stevenson School review by .

Stevenson has solid academic programs in all categories, whether it is science, math, or foreign language. The course load really prepares you for college, and I've heard from many Stevenson graduates that college was not as hard for them as for graduates from public schools. The environment is slightly competitive at Stevenson. About 10% of the class have 4.0+ GPA's, and teachers are very sparing in giving out high grades. The one part I resented about the teachers at Stevenson is that by asking for one's grade during a certain point in the trimester, they seem to categorize you as someone who only works to receive a high grade rather than for the education. The class sizes are relatively small, ranging from 8 to 16 students. This results in a very interactive class where students must participate in order to keep up. The faculty for the most part are very accessible. Most of them have offices nearby where they teach, and they are always willing to provide help. Lots of teachers can also be contacted by email or phone as well. Stevenson's work load consists of 45 minutes to an hour of homework for each class, which can result in 3 to 5 hours of work a night. Students who have difficulties in a subject may drop to a slower paced class. Students who are advanced and fast learners do not receive any benefit for the most part, as Stevenson restricts students to a certain level. For example, most freshman take an Algebra course, and rarely is a freshman allowed to take a Geometry course.

College Counseling

Stevenson's college counseling program can be considered both great and average. For the average student....

Sample insights on college counseling

  • They have contacts at most of the major universities and feel perfectly comfortable picking up the phone and advocating for a student to get accepted somewhere they feel is a good fit for that student. However, these counselors are certainly not magic bullets. They cannot guarantee that a student will get into an Ivy League university...
  • For those wishing to move on to Oxford or Cambridge, the provision is second-to-none. In the months running up to application and interview, every subject faculty offers classes (often run by former Oxbridge tutors) exploring further areas of their subject as well as offering advice on personal statements, interview technique and more...

Admissions - Getting Accepted

Stevenson has a 50% admit rate, which is unusually high for a private school. I....

Sample insights on admissions

  • For the interview, dress conservatively. Try to be very clean and put together. Also, I was a tour guide for two years and at the end of every tour, we were asked to evaluate the candidate so if you think the tour is not apart of the process, you are very wrong. Ask questions and be interested. Also, tip for the parents: the kids speak on the tour. Do not ask their questions for them...
  • Most younger siblings have an easy time in the admissions process. I can only think of one case of a younger sibling not being admitted. About half of the students who entered with me had come from public schools. The remainder came from private K-6 schools, or had transferred from other New York private schools The Elizabeth Morrow School and St. Bernard were two of the larger feeder schools...

School Life

The housing at Stevenson is very similar to that of a college dorm room. Dorms are very sociable and it encourages students to interact with each other. There are weekly room checks and the prefects in each dorm make sure that everything is going accordingly. The cafeteria's food is actually really great compared to other schools. Although after getting sick of cafeteria food after eating it for a year, I still could say that its better than any other public high school cafeteria in the county. Daily lunches consist of popcorn chicken (a student favorite), dumplings, burgers, hot dogs, pizza, macaroni....

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